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MELIBOEUS
be choked with rushy mire, your ewes with young
by no strange fodder will be tried, nor hurt
through taint contagious of a neighbouring flock.
Happy old man, who 'mid familiar streams
and hallowed springs, will court the cooling shade!
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Here, as of old, your neighbour's bordering hedge,
that feasts with willow-flower the Hybla bees,
shall oft with gentle murmur lull to sleep,
while the leaf-dresser beneath some tall rock
uplifts his song, nor cease their cooings hoarse
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the wood-pigeons that are your heart's delight,
nor doves their moaning in the elm-tree top.
TITYRUS
Sooner shall light stags, therefore, feed in air,
the seas their fish leave naked on the strand,
germans and Parthians shift their natural bounds,
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and these the Arar, those the Tigris drink,
than from my heart his face and memory fade.
MELIBOEUS
But we far hence, to burning Libya some,
some to the Scythian steppes, or thy swift flood,
cretan Oaxes, now must wend our way,
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